In this blog, we will discuss point by point everything what a Home Buying Process should include. And it will certainly help you to put things into perspective if you are looking to be in the market for purchase your home for living or for investment. Without further ado, let's get rolling.
Pre-Qualification
The very first step on your journey to real estate ownership should be pre-qualification. Think of it as getting a tailor-made suit that fits you perfectly or choosing the right-sized shirt from the rack. Similarly, in real estate, you'll encounter a wide array of options, from different locations to property types, styles, and ages. However, all of these considerations should come after you've completed your pre-qualification and set your budget ceiling.
Your budget ceiling is critical. It's not just about what you can qualify for based on your income and down payment; it's about what aligns with your overall financial picture and goals.
For example you might be qualifying based on your family income and downpayment contributions to purchase a property upto $950k. However, your family and other commitments except housing, might dictate that your budget should be limited to $800k, as this would allow you to be peaceful in the property and able to tend to your BAU in every respect. This ceiling amount is the first thing you should determine. And only after this comes job of a Realtor.
Research
Here comes the role of your realtor. A great realtors role is to see your budget ceiling, determine your family aspirations, needs and desires and then provide you with their market knowledge, the best options which would work for you as a family unit, and your next 5 year goals. When you talk about Real Estate Investment, nothing could beat the benefits of investing in a good location. The better the 
location is the more better you will see it will perform in term of returns in next 5-10 years. You should aim at going for the best location possible, certainly within your budget and it needs to be balanced out with the other aspects of the property which are property type, style and age of the home. To highlight the location importance to you, here in this visual you can see the median prices of freehold properties in the major towns of GTA in the month of Aug 2023. As you would note that a for a similar freehold property consumers are willing to pay almost twice amount when we compare locations of Oshawa and Richmond Hill. This is the power of location! It should be easy to understand here that if we spend money to buy an asset in Richmond Hill or Oakville that would grow at a better rate than the other parts of the GTA. Growth will happen irrespective in all locations, however the major momentum will be there on the right side of the infographic.
You can review our episode which I did in past on Why locations is the key for a real estate investment here and we will drop the link in the description as well.
Balance Between Parameters
Finding the right balance between location and property specifics is crucial. Every family has unique requirements, and that's where the art of balancing comes in. Let's consider an example: a family with a budget ceiling of $650k. They can get a 2-bedroom high-rise condo in Mississauga Square One, an older condo townhome in Stoney Creek, or a freehold detached property in Brantford for the same budget.
In Brantford, the location may not be as close to the GTA, but the property type is superior (freehold detached). Stoney Creek offers a balance between location and living style. And in Mississauga they are right in the heart of action and core GTA. In all cases, the budget remains intact. Balancing location, property type, style, and age helps you achieve your goals. As long as our family aspirations are clear, we will be able to finalize them.
If we interplay between Location, Property Type, its style and Age of a dwelling, you can pretty much achieve 
what you set out for in your area. The reason why in our company we definitely try to meet our clients in the first meeting for buyer/investor consultation, as with knowing about what all potentially a family can achieve in their budget, it would become a well informed and educated decision. This will help both in their quality of life as well as growth of the Real Estate asset.
You should definitely look at one of the blogs I wrote couple of years back on Four Pillars of Home Buying;it would put all of this into perspective for you and would tremendously help. We will drop the link for it here in the shownotes.
Home Screening Stage
After zeroing down on the location, property type, get etc of our desired home. This the most exciting part of the process where we see the properties which are in our budget in the area we want to invest or move in as a family. Its an educational process in itself for clients, as there are so many things which as a Buyer one should be cognizant of to make the best decision on whether to put their money on the property or not. There could be a property on a busy arterial road, on the face it looks good, but in practice it would always be a botheration to move in and out of driveway, specially would not hold well for families with younger kids. It would also lose on appeal when the time comes to dispense the property.
Also, when we see a property, we should not get blinded by the glitz of shining potlights, nice painting job, 
good kitchen counter top, but rather we should be more concerned on the layout of the home. As the aesthetic elements we can at anytime get updated, and they are very economical to do when you compare it with the cost of the property you are paying. In fact if the house is not updated, it would work in our favour as it will provide us a negotiation edge. We should rather focus on the layout of the property at all floors as that has a direct bearing on our liveability, and future growth. In terms of layout a square living room like 13.5 ft x 11 ft would be more practical to a family for their enjoyment in comparison to a living room skewed in one dimension say 20 ft x 9 ft. You can review our episode on the importance of a Layout here, and we drop a link in description as well. We can change the flooring, painting, countertops, potlights, appliances etc in a property, but not the layout. That's the very reason, the layout should be your prime concern when you screen homes.
This process of triaging properties and going through them for couple of weeks, definitely would take lot of effort from your side, but believe me its worth every hour spent as it will dictate how your next 5-10 years are spent and how best you utilize the home and build memories. Or if you are investor, it would determine, how soon the property goes on rent and how quality tenants get attracted to your property. A home with a deficient layout, when you put on lease on the market, will be rejected by quality tenants and will be accepted by the parties which are not so strong on job credentials or credit score etc. And this journey of reviewing properties, only you have to go through and it cannot and should not be bypassed, one should not hurry up in making a decision and needs to be as objective as possible.
Wish you all the very best! Reach out to our dedicated team at Elixir for any queries you have in Real Estate and we will do our best to help.
Mudit Mehta
Broker of Record
ELIXIR REAL ESTATE INC.
Off: 416-816-6001 | [email protected]
